Developing a culture strategy for Scotland

The Government's Programme for Scotland 2017-2018 underlines our commitment to create a culture strategy for Scotland which will show how important culture is to Scotland's future and enable everyone to have the opportunity to take part in or contribute to cultural life in Scotland. We are creating the strategy in collaboration with individuals, artists, cultural organisations and communities across the country.

The strategy will position culture as having intrinsic value and contributing both directly and indirectly to the health, wealth and success of our nation: defining Scotland as a diverse and distinct society with creativity and innovation at its heart. It will support the long-term development of culture in Scotland.

Engagement

The culture strategy is being developed over a number of phases. We are currently in the engagement phase, gathering ideas and views through Scotland-wide Culture Conversations. This phase will help shape a draft of the strategy which will form the basis of a formal public consultation. We will again promote public engagement throughout the consultation phase and ensure that the final, published culture strategy responds to feedback received.

The views and experiences of all those working across Scotland's cultural sector, as well as anyone with an interest in culture, are crucial to developing the culture strategy for Scotland.

We are engaging extensively with people across Scotland, through a range of events and online channels, to determine the scope and shape of the strategy.

Culture Conversation at Glasgow Women's Library, 26 June 2017

Our engagement process began in June with an invitation-only event at Glasgow Women's Library, where we spoke with around 90 representatives from across the culture sector.

Participants discussed what we mean by culture today, and shared their ideas about the future role of and vision for culture in Scotland. These expert views from the sector, gathered at the very start of this process, will help to refine the strategy's principles and scope.

Since the launch event in June 2017, we have held nine open invitation public events across the country in Dundee, Inverness, Paisley, Galashiels, Dumfries, Aberdeen, Skye, Edinburgh and Dunfermline. Feedback has also been gathered more broadly and we are drawing together a summary of the key themes which have emerged from these discussions to be published in 2018 This report will inform the draft strategy which will go out to public consultation in 2018.

Contact

To find out more about the culture strategy and how to get involved, email culturestrategy@gov.scot or contact a member of the strategy team: